Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "The Importance of Being Eternal"

Day: 9

Show: 33

Title: The Importance of Being Eternal

Category: Comedy / Literary adaptation

By:  Little Apple Theatre Company

Directed by: Paul Willis Jr.

Location: Open Eye Theatre

Summary: Oscar Wilde's most well-known play The Importance of Being Earnest, reimagined in the vampire world.

Highlights: Just a few weeks ago, I saw the debut of new #TCTheater company Little Apple Theatre with a charming and clever production of The Importance of Being Earnest, seen through a queer lens. Now they're back with their Fringe debut that takes that version, and adds vampires! You don't need to have seen the first production to enjoy this one, but it certainly adds another layer of fun. Many of the team of artists from the first production return for this one, including three of the five cast members. How do you do a three-act play in less than an hour? Like this: cutting out a few incidental characters, trimming some scenes, but still conveying the major plot points of the three acts. Although altered, because BFFs/lovers Algie and Jack are vampires, as is Aunt Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolin, and Jack's ward Cecily is a goth girl who wants to be turned. They've changed the names of the characters in this version of the play to names familiar from vampire stories, from Nosferatu to Interview with a Vampire to Twilight, and added in some vampiric references. The Algie, Lady Bracknell (her Dracknell/Dracula), and Gwendolyn characters are all played by the same actors as the first production (Adam Rider, Tinka, and Grace Barnstead), in performances that are similar but campier, and vampires. Joining the cast are Ian Olson as Jack and Victoria Jones (set designer for the previous production) as Cecily, and all are delightfully over-the-top and bloodthirsty. On its own, this is a very fun and very fringey take on a classic comedy, but viewed with the previous production is an even more impressive double-shot of original and clever adaptation.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"The Importance of Being Earnest" by Little Apple Theatre at the Historic Mounds Theatre

Viewing The Importance of Being Earnest through a queer lens makes so much sense (especially considering playwright Oscar Wilde's importance in queer history), that I'm surprised to one has thought of it before. Well maybe they have, but new #TCTheater company Little Apple Theatre is the first company I've seen do it that way. Their production, playing at the Historic Mounds Theatre in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, is quite charming and amusing, not just as a fine production of this clever play, but also in the way it reimagines the relationships in the story, with only one minor edit to the dialogue. And even more intriguing, after this play closes on August 2, they will be doing a different reimagined version of the play at Minnesota Fringe Festival, with the same director and some of the same cast members, but shorted to under one hour, and with all the characters as vampires (because Fringe). See this "Earnestly Queer" production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Mounds Theatre through August 2, and then see The Importance of Being Eternal at Open Eye Theatre August 8-15 as part of the Fringe.

"Violent Delights" by Night Fire Theatre at the Crane Theater

#TCTheater artist Penelope Parsons-Lord developed Violent Delights, a compilation of scenes from Shakespeare that explicitly or implicitly connote violence, nearly 20 years ago in her native Australia. Last seen locally in 2019, it's only gotten more relevant, as our culture seemingly gets more violent every year. Violence is everywhere around us - on the news, in the games we play, in our language, and even in Shakespeare. Violence is so pervasive in our world that we sometimes don't even notice it (e.g., using the phrase "you killed it" to mean you did a great job), which is the premise of this piece. Penelope has reexamined these familiar works, pulling out "small moments of violence," and maybe now we can begin to recognize them in the real world. A talented nine-person cast plays too many characters to count, the scenes well chosen and woven together, combined with pop songs and movement to create a gripping tale that isn't one cohesive narrative, but still tells a story. You can witness these Violent Delights at the Crane Theater in Minneapolis through February 14.